Esther attended the SOS meeting in Selma. “Saving OurSelves - SOS: A Movement for Justice & Democracy” describes itself as a movement rather than an organization and we are grateful and proud to be one of the 40 plus organizations associated with it. We appreciated being given the opportunity to raise our issue and are very grateful to Senator Hank Sanders who once more pre-filed his 5 bills, as he has for so many years, addressing capital punishment.

Last week Anthony Tyson who had been the acting Chairman officially became the Chairman of our organization. Bart Johnson moved up to the position of Vice-Chair. Jeffery Lee is now our Secretary/Treasurer, Jessie Phillips is our Coordinator, Anthony Boyd because he is a master at keeping order remained in the important position of Sergeant at Arms and Randy Lewis carries on as our Information Director. These are all important positions with their specific duties.

Yesterday faith leaders and members of the anti-death penalty group Abolitionist Action Committee (AAC) convened at the U.S. Supreme Court to mark the 40th anniversary of the first modern death penalty execution. We thank them for their commitment and a special thanks to the “more than a dozen” who were arrested.

Great news from Washington State where the Governor not only issued a reprieve for a man scheduled to be executed 1.19.17 but also called for abolition of the death penalty. Not quite in the same category of positive news is that Arizona will no longer use midazolam even though it is not prepared to give up the death penalty. However in VA an execution is scheduled for 1.18.17 using midazolam from a compounding pharmacy risking another botched execution. Will the U.S. Supreme Court care?

Earlier today we forwarded the year end report from DPIC (released at 12:01am today) and related articles. The death penalty is at historic lows by way of new sentences, executions, and public support but Alabama continues to have the largest per capita death row in the country and last year ranked number four behind such states as CA, OH and TX for number of death sentences and number one per capita. What does that say about Alabama?

We dedicated this meeting to Ron sharing memories and our feelings of grief and anger. Grief over the loss of our friend and anger at the barbarity of our State so in love with killing and quite honestly also at the U.S. Supreme Court that showed so little respect in how it handled last Thursday highlighted in the Adam Liptak article “The Lethal Gap How the Supreme Court Handles the Death Penalty.”